Its a Peace on Earth Good Will to Man Kinda Thing
by Linda J
Summary: I wrote this in '03 so it's best to say it's now an AU story. Our favorite mutants, even the evil ones put the differences aside and work in a homeless shelter on Christmas day. Yeah, its mushy, but pretty fun too.
1. Chapter 1

SUMMERY: This fic was written in '03 so of course it doesn't match up to the events that take place in X3. But all in all the story's pretty fun I think.

Once a year the X-men and brotherhood set aside their differences and work together at a homeless shelter on Christmas day.

RATING: PG

DISCLAIMER: All characters in this story are not mine they won't make me any money! I'm only allowed play with them if I promise not to break them.

IT'S A PEACE ON EARTH GOODWILL TO ALL KINDA THING

BY LINDA J.

All in all Pyro got along with his new so called family pretty well. Sure there were those tense moments when it seemed like leaving Xavier's School for the Gifted was a tragic mistake, some very painful moments at that- but over all Pyro was pretty happy as a member of the brotherhood. One thing that especially pleased him was no one made a big fuss over the holidays.

Oh how he hated living at x-mansion during the holidays! Every year it started with a Halloween party and it didn't seem to end until New Years day! It was an endless bombardment of festivities; singing, decorating, eating, and gift giving that made him feel as if he were living in a regular Yule tide hell! But here it was much different. Pyro figured it may have been because the group's alpha male, Magneto was Jewish. No reason for him to recognize any of the traditional Christian holidays, especially when he considered how badly Christians persecuted Magneto's people over the centuries. At least Pyro knew that's how he would have felt.

Besides, Christmas was nothing but commercialism at its worst! A way to get people to buy a bunch of crap that they didn't need for a bunch of people they really didn't care about. Yep, the brotherhood had it right; leave the holidays to the weasels and the witless. Except for Halloween- now that was a holiday 'Tooth and Toad knew how to do right! No costumes, they didn't need them. Just go around from place to place starting trouble and raising hell; leaving behind them a trail of misery, destruction and woe. This year they even brought along Pyro, their little bro to join in the fun. But unfortunately he could remember only bits and pieces of their night of terror. It wasn't the first time Pyro got drunk but he certainly ended up with worst hang-over he ever had. The only thing he clearly remembered of that night was torching some Sorority house and watching all those college chicks run outside wearing only whatever they slept in. He didn't even remember the ride back to the lair; just waking up the next morning with his mouth feeling like an ashtray and to this day neither 'Tooth or Toad has told him why they now occasionally refer to him as "Pee-Wee".

But everyone did their own thing at Thanksgiving. Mystique was stuck in DC playing her role as Sen. Kelly; Sabretooth had left early in the month to do those "jobs" no one talked about then supposedly spent the holiday with some woman preacher he met a couple of years ago; and Magneto disappeared early that morning to who knows where. It was about this time that Toad started taking the role of big brother to John rather proudly. The two ended up taking in a couple of movies and eating at a Chinese restaurant then just drove aimlessly around town for the rest of the night. Not once had there been a single mention of Santa Claus, or jingle bells, or eggnog or Rudolf. All was right with Pyro's world and for once he thought that Dec 25th would pass by him in blissful silence. He was wrong.

It started innocently enough with Toad beating on his bedroom door at 4:30 in the morning. "C'mon Pee Wee got a mission for you."

'Mission huh?' Pyro liked the sound of that. Magneto had not yet put him on any official mission since joining the brotherhood because he wasn't sure if the boy was ready for the challenge. But having that in mind, it only made good sense to make a strike on Christmas day, most everyone's at home today and security would probably be working on a skeleton crew; any mission should go off smooth as silk. But talk about telling someone at the last minute! Pyro guessed Mags' may be testing his sense of adaptability as well as readiness to be prepared at any given moment. Well if this was a test, then this was one mission Pyro determined he wasn't going to go down in flames!

He was up and out of his room by 4:37 and practically rushing Toad out the door. "C'mon old man, get a move on!"

Toad did a double take when he heard someone for the first time in his life ever call him 'old man'. "Who are you calling old man?"

"You." Pyro plainly stated as he started putting on his jacket. "Is anyone else coming along on this mission?" Toad smirked at the way Pyro proudly stressed the word 'mission' and reached in his pocket for his keys and together they headed toward his brand new Mitsubishi Spyder. "We'll meet up with ev'ryone once we're there."

"Where we are going?" Pyro asked as soon as he got in the car, immediately he began rummaging through Toad's box of CDs. "We're 'eading back to the big apple mate. And leave my shit alone!"

"But I always check out your CDs Toad!" Pyro then tried to flatter the slightly greenish colored mutant. "You've got the coolest taste in music, bro." Toad nodded his head in approvingly. "And if I ever find any of my CDs in your room again you'll find my boot up your thieving arse!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, so…" Pyro decided this was a great time to change the subject. "…is this mission dangerous?"

Once again Toad nodded. "Possibly."

"Really?" Pyro perked up. "Are we going to kill anyone?" Toad couldn't help but chortle. "God I hope not! Ummm…It's not that kind of mission."

Toad's explanation didn't make any sense to Pyro. "Not that kind of a mission? Well, what other kind of missions do we go on?"

Toad carefully thought of his answer. "I-i-i-t's-s-s a…goodwill mission."

Instantly Pyro's enthusiasm dropped like a brick. "A goodwill mission?" He dryly repeated as he found his lighter and began to fiddle with its lid. "We're called the brotherhood of evil mutants Toad! E-v-i-l mutants! Since when do we go on goodwill missions?"

"Since about five years ago..." But before Toad could go into a deeper explanation Pyro hastily and defiantly interrupted. "Erik's Jewish, so what's he doing expecting us to do goodwill on Christmas?"

"Look…" Toad's voice was beginning to sound quite agitated. "…being one religion or another has nothing to do with showing a little kindness to those worse off than you regardless of what day it is, you over privileged American prick!"

Insulted, Pyro threw him self back into his seat and pouted in silence; neither one of them said another word for the next several miles. Once Toad calmed down, he tried to make Pyro understand it wouldn't be such a bad way to spend his day.

"Ah it's not so bad mate; trust me. It all started out as a bet we 'ad with those x-wimps five years ago. Well long story short- we lost- and the wager was to do volunteer work at a 'omeless shelter on Christmas day. It turned out that we all 'ad a blast and we've done this ev'ry year since.

Pyro couldn't help but point out one very important detail. "I think the choice word in your sentence would be –volunteer! And I for one don't recall volunteering my happy ass to work in some homeless shelter! That's the kind of crap Xavier's punks do; and I dam sure didn't volunteer any of my time while I was there either!"

Toad's grin broadened as wide as it could. "That's the difference b'tween us and them chum. When we say, volunteer we mean you'll do it like it or not. And oh, by th' way- we'll be working side by side with your "x"-buddies and that means t'day's strictly seize fire; so whatever you do Pee-Wee, no flame throwing t'day."

A disappointed Pyro remained quiet as they drove on into New York City. With it being so early on Christmas morning, traffic was light and they made it into the city in good time. Toad elected to park his prize possession in a safe parking lot and take the subway into the inner city. It wasn't until they were riding the subway that either mutant said a word. By now Pyro had accepted he wasn't getting out of this so called mission. "Fine;" He resigned with a sigh. "…so what will I be doing there?"

"Well it all depends on where they need us most. Except for 'Tooth who ALWAYS cooks…" Pyro interrupted. "I thought you said we wouldn't be killing people today." His joke made Toad laugh. "Don't worry, as long as 'e keeps that 'air net in place, its safe to eat whatever the over-sized fur ball cooks. Besides, you'd be surprised what a good cook 'Tooth can be."

"No thanks." Pyro insisted. "My diet doesn't include raccoons or possums or squirrels or weasels or anything else "Jethro" catches!" Toad just shook his head in fake sympathy. "Too bad for you mate; you just don't know a good meal when you see one; even if it's trying to run away from you."

When they arrived at the shelter, it was only around 6am. They went inside and met the head coordinator for the shelter's Christmas day events. She instructed them to go into the community room and look for Bobby and Marie. They found the community room quickly enough. It was a very large rectangular room that for the moment was bare with a small stage at the far end of the room and a cafeteria style food line along the adjacent wall.

Pyro and Toad saw the junior x-men on the far corner of the stage putting up an aluminum Christmas tree one branch at a time. Instantly Pyro and Toad began to snicker when they saw both Bobby and Rogue were wearing what Pyro thought was the silliest, dorkiest, dumbest looking elf costume he ever saw! Right down to the green leotards and pointed green slippers that curled up at the toes and had a large jingly bell on their tips! Those shoes combined with the humiliated looks on their faces only made both of the evil mutants snicker even harder. When he and Toad walked up to speak to them it took every bit of restraint they both had not to burst out laughing hard enough to fall down on the floor and roll around like mad dogs! Pyro had to look away for a minute while Toad couldn't help but say, "It ain't easy being green is it?"

Pyro sucked in his lips and bit them together but it didn't help entirely as his snicker forced its way out of his nose and he ended up sounding like an elephant's trumpet. "You think we look silly?" Rogue curtly informed them. "Just wait till one of you gets to be the third elf." Their snickering instantly stopped. Toad didn't hesitate for one second to turn around and inform John that the elf costume would be much too small for a man of his muscular build, even if he hadn't seen the dam thing yet.

"Well there's NO way in hell you're getting me into that getup!" Pyro warned as he began backing up and instinctively reached for his lighter, but even though he only meant to scare them off, the lighter was suddenly jolted from Pyro's hand as Toad grabbed it with his long sticky tongue. "Hey give that back, Wart!" Pyro demanded. "I wasn't really going to use it on 'em."

"Best remember that bloat." Toad coolly reminded his younger accomplice. "All the same I think I'll hold onto this for now."

"But I…"

"But nothing young man!" Everyone heard a stern but regal sounding gentleman's voice coming from behind. Pyro turned and saw Magneto dressed in a sharp looking black silk suit, strolling along side Charles as he maneuvered his wheelchair towards the small group of mutants. "You won't need that toy of yours today Pyro, so…" Suddenly John's lighter floated out of Toad's hand and into Magneto's. "I'll hold on to this for safe keeping."

"That's not fair!" Pyro protested. "Fair?" Erik tilted his head slightly and began to ask the boy a few questions of his own. "Is it fair that a boy half your age has no home to go to tonight? His bed is a cardboard box that he shares with his sister and mother? Is it fair that there are families around the world that haven't enough food to survive on for one more day? My boy, please tell me what's fair about their circumstances than perhaps I'll show more sympathy for yours."

John hung his head in defeat. Even though he couldn't understand how spending his day here would help THOSE people or especially why dressing up like a really stupid looking elf would make THEIR lives any better, John understood he wasn't going to win this argument in a million years! "I want it back by the end of the day."

His demand came out sounding about as assertive as a puppy's yip who was confronting the alpha wolf of the pack. Erik of course gave his lesser no reply.

"John, go with Rogue." Charles recommended to the young man. "She can give you your costume and show you where you can change." And just like a puppy that had been beat, John followed behind Rogue with his tail curdled between his legs.

They walked from the day room, and took a short cut through the kitchen where Pyro saw many of his old school mates and Storm standing in front of a large table covered in pies with a very stern and unhappy look on her face. It was obvious she was counting each of the pies one by one.

"…twenty-six…twenty-seven…twenty eight! I knew it!" She angrily snapped. "Kurt!" She yelled for the blue devil. "Kurt, come here right now!" Suddenly BAMF and in a puff of blue smoke Kurt Wagner appeared directly in front of her holding one of the pies in his hands. "I…I didn't think one would matter, froloin; I'm very sorry." And the very meek and gentle mutant handed the pie back to its maker.

"Alright." She seemed pleased with Kurt's apology. "But where's the other one?" Kurt's navy blue skinned face showed nothing but surprise at her question. "I do not know of any other missing pies, Ororo."

Storm thought for a moment; then began rummaging through the trash receptacles. Low and behold she found the empty pie tin. With some quick mental detective work, the weather witch came up with the next most likely suspect.

"Sabretooth!" She yelled the large blonde haired feral's name and immediately many of the other kitchen's workers pointed toward the back of the kitchen where the stoves and ovens were. Ororo stormed her way through the kitchen and found him alone, hovering over the stove with his hair pulled back in a bun and wearing a hair net. He was listening to a small radio as it played "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" while stirring a large pan of gravy with a whisk.

"Alright you mangy old Tom cat fess up! Did you eat my pie?"

The felinoid only glanced at the goddess over his shoulder and gave a degusted grunt. "No!" He rudely snapped. "I didn't eat yer dam pie!" He lied to her and turned his attention back to his work. "Oh is that so?" Storm's eyes began to turn milky white; suddenly there was a clap of thunder and Sabretooth's hair began to stand on end as electrons began to fill the air inside the kitchen.

"No!" The tigeresk man hysterically cried. Quickly he covered the pot to keep any debris from ruining his gravy and turned to confront the weather witch. "I've been here since two this morning, cooking up a storm of my own! Can't you just give a guy a break?"

Storm's eyes returned to normal. "Give a guy a break? I'll have you know mister, I was up all night baking those pies and…and what's this?" She demanded an answer as she reached up and picked off a bit of pie crust off his 'KISS THE COOK' apron. "Um…I can explain." Sabretooth's expression turned to both fear and embarrassment as once more Storm's eyes began to show her anger. "Wait! Wait, I…" He nervously began searching his pockets for a small box wrapped in gold satin paper with a fine red bow on top. "Here; I got this for you. Merry Christmas, Storm."

Ororo's eyes again returned to normal as she hesitantly took Sabretooth's present from his hand. Immediately she opened the package. When she saw the bottle of her favorite perfume she smiled and began to coo. "Oh, Victor; this is so thoughtful of you. I don't know what to say."

The large and normally intimidating mutant shyly smiled and began to brag about him self. "I had to go to seven different shops to find the right scent!" Storm then thought to ask. "How did you know this was my fragrance? Oh wait a minute…Don't answer that." Suddenly Ororo felt very strange as she imagined that during the many times Sabretooth had so ruthlessly attacked her, he had bothered to figure out what perfume she was wearing. "Um…but I didn't get anything for you." She politely informed the feral. The large mutant waved it off and went back to stirring his gravy. "Let's just make the pie my gift OK?" Reluctantly Ororo agreed and began to leave him there. "Oh Storm? Can you tell them that they're short a gallon of milk too?" With her hands on her hips Storm huffed. "Sabretooth, you mean to tell me that you drank a WHOLE gallon of milk?" He nodded his head as once more he only glanced over his shoulder. "Well yeah I needed it just to wash down that pie of yers; the crust was pretty hard and salty this year, pretty dry too. Not your best work if you don't mind me sayin' so." Storm managed to keep her self composure but as she whirled around she started to mutter something about not forgetting this the next time they met on the battlefield.


	2. Chapter 2

Rogue and Pyro made it to the closet where all the costumes were kept, but just as they opened the door and went inside, they heard Jean and Scott arguing down the hall. "I don't care if Logan's the only one short enough to wear the Santa suit this year! I always get to play Santa!" The two teenagers peeked around the corner to see what was happening.

"Scott be reasonable!" Jean argued back. "Someone ordered the Santa suit in the wrong size and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Alright;" Scott reluctantly admitted. "But then let somebody else be Mrs. Claus. How about Ororo?" He thought to ask. "She's got her hands full with the Christmas play they're putting on later today."

"Well then, how about Mystique?"

"I already asked her and she said there was no way she was going to turn herself into a fat old broad!"

Then suddenly Logan walked up from the other direction and joined in the lover's quarrel. "What's wrong Scott? Afraid me and Jean might forget the marriage is just pretend?"

"Of course not!" The jealous man declared. "Its just Jean and I have played Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus every year since we started coming here; it's our way of spending Christmas together. And since she D-I-E-D earlier in the year…" He paused for dramatic effect. "…spending today together is really important to me." Scott then sighed and threw his hands in the air. "But if you would rather spend Christmas with Logan, don't let me stand in the way!"

Jean shook her head. "That's really hitting below the belt, Scott. OK you win; but it's now YOUR job to find our new Mrs. Claus."

Scott agreed and went to look for Mystique while Jean went to find Ororo and Kurt so they could get started putting the chairs and tables up in the community hall for the crowds of homeless people who would soon be coming in from the cold and Logan went outside for a quick smoke.

Rogue found the third elf costume and as she handed it to John she gave him an evil smile. "Cheer up John. If you really don't want to wear this you could go to Cyclops and tell him you'll be Mrs. Claus." John merely glared at her and yanked the articles of clothing from her hands. "Why are you being such a bitch?" Rogue returned the glare. "Because you went off and joined those creeps!" She angrily snapped.

"Look, it's not like I'm actually missed around the mansion I'm sure." John tried to explain his actions away. "I just fit in better at the brotherhood than I did at Xavier's and…once you get to know them they're all pretty cool."

"They tried to kill me John!" Rogue coolly reminded him through her teeth. "Oh, yeah…that." John felt a little sheepish when he couldn't think of anything to smooth that over. "Yeah…THAT!" She rolled her eyes in degust but realized there was no point carrying on the argument. "C'mon, I'll show you where you can change."

Scott began going from place to place calling out Mystique's name, hoping that just maybe the shape shifter might actually respond.

He made his way to the kitchen which was now getting rather crowded with many volunteers coming in to help out and began searching for her there.

'She could be anybody.' He thought to himself. He finally saw Sabretooth and went over to ask him if he had seen her. The ferocious giant was pulling out a huge rack of turkeys which he had already cut into serving pieces before putting them in the oven.

"Mmmm…Smells good Sabretooth." Scott admitted with a smile as he smelled the lovely aroma of roasted turkey as it filled the entire kitchen area. "Sure does don't it red eye?" The feral's chest puffed up with pride as he too deeply inhaled the savory aroma and set the rack down on a table for other volunteers to set the meat into metal serving containers which would keep the turkey warm for quite some while.

"It's just a dam shame these bozos won't let me cook my Christmas specialty." Sabretooth growled indignantly.

"What would that be?" Scott wondered.

"Reindeer Stew!" The felinoid licked his lips at the very thought of it.

"You eat reindeer on Christmas!?!" Scott quipped in ghastly horror.

"Ah don't worry red-eye. I always wait until they get done pulling Santa's sleigh." Sabretooth playfully winked.

"Guess we'll just have to settle for turkey." Scott smiled and went along with his joke. "You haven't seen Mystique anywhere around have you?"

"Mystique…in a kitchen?" The feral snorted as he reached in the oven for another rack. "You'd have better luck findin' a virgin in a whore house!"

Scott never imagined such a quiet but ruthless killer would have such a lively sense of humor.

"You wouldn't happen to have a clue where she might be?"

The giant just shrugged his shoulders as he quickly snatched a piece of turkey skin from the rack and tossed it into his mouth. "More than likely she's got her lips puckered up to bucket head's ass; an' I think he's in the storage room with Chuck."

Sabretooth's answer made sense as tasteless and uncouth as it was, so Scott went to look for her in the receiving room. But first he checked in the community room just to be sure.

Jean was using her telekinesis to move the large long tables in place while others set up the chairs and table decorations. Scott looked up and saw Toad hanging from the ceiling pulling a string of red colored Christmas garland behind him. He had already more than half of the day room decorated in with Christmas joy in variety of lights and colored garland.

"Please tell me you're NOT using that green sticky snot of yours to tack up the garland to the walls and ceiling." Scott yelled up to Mortimer.

"Why wouldn't I?" The green amphibinoid looked down at Cyclops and yelled back.

"Because…" Scott felt like he was talking to one of his more unruly students. "They would like to use this stuff again NEXT year!"

Toad just shrugged his shoulders and coughed up another dap of flem.

Scott gave up the fight altogether. "Say Toad, do you know where Mystique is?

The greenish man just shook his head and quickly replied. "Try looking for Mags; find him and she won't be too far away."

Scott headed on to the shelter's storage room and sure enough Charles, Erik and Mystique were all there. Charles held a clipboard and called off the names of families and what they were supposed to gifts they were to get, while Mystique and Erik would find the items and put them in the proper boxes or bags for later distribution.

"Mystique, am I glad to see you!" Scott called out her name with great joy. "I need to ask a favor from you."

Mystique stopped what she was doing and gave the young but confident and extremely handsome man a flirtatious look. "You just got Jean back from the dead and you're tired of her already?"

Scott rolled his eyes. "It's nothing like that Mystique; I need to ask you to be Mrs. Santa Claus this year."

Immediately she turned around and returned to sifting though toy trucks and stuffed animals. "Jean asked me already, and my answer is still no."

Scott wasn't ready to give up the fight just yet. "I know; she said you don't want to be some old fat broad. But what if you took the part; you could make this year's Mrs. Claus sexier, younger, more beautiful than any kid as EVER seen!"

Scott's argument did appeal to her sense and vanity and she began to consider his proposal. Then he thought of the one thing that just might seal the deal. "You know Logan's playing Santa this year."

Mystique eyes gleamed and she gave him a sultry smile. "Oh is that so? Hmmm…Jean failed to mention that bit of valuable information before." She paused for a moment. "Alright Cyclops, I'll be Mrs. Claus this year."

Scott breathed a sigh of relief and went back to help in setting up the community room. Everything seemed to run pretty smoothly for the rest of the morning and well into the lunchtime festivities. Storm, Kurt and her class preformed a little Christmas skit for all those coming in to spend Christmas at the shelter. It was filled with magic tricks where the big finally was watching the "devil" disappear in a puff of blue smoke!

It wasn't until it was time for the elves to start rounding up the kids so they could see Santa and join him on stage when everyone noticed that someone was missing.

"Where's John?" Everyone started to ask.

Rogue spoke up. "He still in the men's room!"

"You mean that boy hasn't come out of there since he went in this morning?" Erik said in disbelief. "Yep. He's afraid everyone's going to laugh at him."

Logan who was now in his Santa costume and gnawing on an unlit cigar decided to try to talk John out. He went into the men's room where Pyro had hid himself in one of the stalls. He went into the stall next to him and stood up on the toilet to look over the wall.

"Hey," he barked down to the dejected looking teenager. "You gonna stay in here all day?"

Pyro who was fully dressed in his elf costume and sitting on the toilet looked up at the least likely looking Santa Claus he had ever seen. "That's the plan."

"Ugh-huh" Logan replied in a less than cheerful tone. "Ya know frankly bub, I don't care if you stay in here until the flesh rots off your stinking bones." He paused for a moment and took the cigar out of his mouth a held it between his fingers. "But if I gotta be seen in public wearin' this red suit and fake beard then you can go out in that!"

Pyro went back to staring at the closed bathroom stall door in front of him. "Sorry, fuzz face but I don't plan to make this the most humiliating day of my life."

"Look kid, holidays ain't never been much my thing either. It just seems more like a family thing so it's not like I'm an expert at this sort of crap. But one thing I do know, this day ain't about making yourself happy. It's about pulling your head out of your ass long enough to see that you ain't the only one here on earth. There are others here too and if you can do something for someone else -even just once a year, well then…it makes you a part of something greater than yourself." Logan waited for John to respond but instead the young man seemed to have turned deaf. Sadly Logan shook his head, put his cigar back in his mouth and left Pyro staring blankly at the door.

Logan returned to join in the highlight of the Christmas celebration as the star of the show.

"Alright;" he flung a huge red fleece sack stuffed with toys over his shoulder. "Let's get this show on the road!"

He forgot he still had the cigar in his mouth. He saw Scott standing by the stage's entrance way. "Who'd you get to play the little Mrs.?" Logan asked Scott hoping he didn't have an answer. Scott must have known this by the way he gloated when he gave Logan the news. "Mystique is this year's Mrs. Santa."

Logan looked as if he was in pain by the he winced upon hearing this.

"And, oh…" Scott's shit eating grin got even wider as he began pulling the cigar out of Logan's mouth. "…You're not actually going out there with THIS in your mouth are you?"

"What's a matter, not good PC?" Logan growled.

"I admit it's better than seeing Santa chugging from a whiskey bottle or drooling over a Hustler magazine, but still a cigar just isn't quite the right image we want to leave these kids with." Scott tried to sound as sympathetic as he could to the feral's favorite vice.

Just then Mystique arrived. She was still in her natural form.

"So Logan…" Her voice could have melted butter. "Are you ready to go on stage with Marilyn Monroe?" And with that she turned herself into the sex goddess already wearing a red and white trimmed outfit that most playboy bunnies would be too embarrassed to wear.

Logan softly growled and glared at Scott, as he reluctantly reminded himself of his little speech to Pyro about today being a day of selflessness.

"No…" He sarcastically quipped. "… but I'll settle for a really good counterfeit."

Mystique gave him a scornful look but decided not to reply. "So, what exactly does Mrs. Santa Claus do?" She asked Scott in a snobbish tone.

"Well, aside from handing out candy canes and leading the children in Christmas carols, you pretty much just hang around Santa and act sweet." Scott explained.

"Lead Christmas carols!?!" The shape shifter asked in horror.

"Yeah, haven't you ever seen Jean and me do this before?"

Mystique gave him an insulted look. "I always managed to find something ELSE to do. Look Cyclops; I don't do Christmas carols!" Scott desperately tried to talk her into cooperating. "Can't you make this an exception, just this once?"

Mystique stood her ground. "I DON'T sing! And I DON'T make exceptions!"

But Scott's narrow minded nature wouldn't allow him to give up on this age old tradition. "You agreed to be Mrs. Claus and Mrs. Claus leads all the little boys and girls in Christmas carols!"

"Fine." She then returned to her natural self. "Then you can find yourself another Mrs. Claus." with that she whirled around and left.

Logan was beside himself with glee. He was grinning from ear to ear as he watched Scott's face turn to shock then dread. "Well unless you plan on wearing that red dress yourself, I guess Jean's going to be up there on stage with me."

Scott sternly frowned. "Go on up there without her for now; she'll join you in a couple of minutes."

Logan went up and took his place on stage doing his best to make his HO-HO-HOs sound believable. Then much to his surprise he saw John still in costume on stage along with Bobby and Marie escorting the small children who came in from the streets up on stage to sit on Santa's lap. As soon as he had a chance, he pulled John over to the side to ask him what changed his mind. "So…what I said finally got to you kid?" Pyro just gave Logan a quick glance and looked away. "Yeah, yeah that's…that's pretty much it." Logan nodded though he didn't need his feral senses to tell the boy was lying his ass off. What Logan didn't know and Pyro would never say was that after Logan left him in the men's room, both Toad and Sabretooth dropped by, kicked the stall door in and dragged him out by his collar.

Then they told him that either he got his skinny ass out on stage or they would kick his ass, carry him up there and THEN they would stop everything just so they could tell everyone here why their nick-name for him is Pee-Wee.

So like any little brother who has mean nasty bullies for big brothers, Pyro knew he had no choice but to march himself on stage to endure the humiliation.

Jean was sitting at one of the tables next to Charles watching all the children parade around the room showing their mommies and daddies their new toys Santa gave them when Ororo came up to her and asked why wasn't she on stage.

"Scott is supposed to get Mystique to do this year."

Storm gave her a confused look. "I just saw Mystique leaving with Erik."

Both Jean and Charles looked at each other as they both mentally caught onto what Scott was planning to do. Just then Logan called out to the audience, "I wonder where my wife could be?"

All of a sudden everyone heard a loud falsetto voice calling from off stage.

"Here I am dear!" And that moment Scott appeared on stage dressed as Mrs. Claus himself!

Everyone in the room started to laugh including the kids at the funny looking Mrs. Santa with her flat chest and ruby red sunglasses. But Scott never came out of character and had a good humor about it all the whole time he was on stage. When he stood next to Logan, the burly man swatted Scott on the rump. "So what cha doin' after the party hun?" Logan teased.

"Stop it, or I'll have you up on sexual harassment charges." Scott teased back.

Logan just kept shaking his head. "I can't believe you'd rather come out here and be Mrs. Santa yourself than let Jean play the part."

"Believe it!" Scott proudly, defiantly declared.

Soon the festivities were over but the crowds of people wanting to eat a good hot meal never seemed to thin out. Sabretooth volunteered to stay and help clean up as did some from x-mansion. But as soon as he could, John got out of that ridiculous get up and was begging Toad to take him back home.

They were waiting for their subway train when Toad remembered that Erik had given him Pyro's lighter.

"I guess you can 'ave this back now." The amphipinoid said and tossed him the lighter. John caught his prize possession in the air and immediately began toying with the lid. Having his lighter back in his hands felt as good to him as smoking a cigarette does to a nicotine addict.

A few moments went by when Toad realized he needed to visit the loo. Pyro quietly waited for him as he walked aimlessly around on the platform. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw an old white man who was by all standards a wino sitting on floor with his back leaning against the wall. He had dirty old clothes dirty old boots and he wore a dirty old army jacket. He was doing no one any harm as he quietly sat alone watching the people as they came and went to visit their friends and families for Christmas.

A moment or so went by and suddenly from the shadows from the underground tunnel came a strange looking mutant no older than Pyro. He had webbed hands that looked more like flippers and light blue hair and waddled around rather than walked. Cautiously the strange looking fellow struggled as he climbed up onto the platform and began rummaging through the trash cans. Pyro watched him for go from can to can looking for whatever useful items of food or clothing he could find. At first Pyro tried ignoring him, but the harder he tried to avoid seeing him, the plainer he came into view. As the mutant continued his little treasure hunt he came closer and closer to the derelict and Pyro was sure the old man would give him a hard time for being a mutant; but instead when the penguin like mutant was close enough for the man to speak to him Pyro was amazed when he saw the wino reach in his pocket and hand the mutant a sandwich wrapped in tinfoil. And even more amazing was when the old guy helped unfold the foil so that the mutant whose hands were too deformed to manage the job alone could eat the sandwich in one piece.

It was one thing to see those with plenty like Magneto and Charles give some of what they had, but to see someone who had next to nothing give even that up was probably the most profound sign of what Christmas was meant to be. And to give it to someone most hate and call an outcast made an even greater impact on Pyro.

By the time Toad returned to the platform the strange mutant had retreated back into the tunnel and the wino was content to return to his people watching. Pyro never mentioned what he saw that day in the subway to a living soul, but there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't remember it one way or another.

-THE END


End file.
